Rabbit R1 AI Assistant: Worth, Specs, Launch Date

Do you hate apps? Jesse Lyu hates apps. At the least, that was my takeaway after my first chat with the founding father of Rabbit Inc., a brand new AI startup debuting a pocket-friendly gadget referred to as the R1 at CES 2024. As a substitute of taking out your smartphone to finish some activity, looking for the appropriate app, after which tapping round inside it, Lyu desires us to simply ask the R1 by way of a push-to-talk button. Then a collection of automated scripts referred to as “rabbits” will perform the duty so you possibly can go about your day.

The R1 is a red-orange, squarish gadget concerning the measurement of a stack of Submit-It notes. It was designed in collaboration with the Swedish agency Teenage Engineering. (Lyu is on TE’s board of administrators.) The R1 has a 2.88-inch touchscreen on the left aspect, and there is an analog scroll wheel to the appropriate of it. Above the scroll wheel is a digicam that may rotate 360 levels. It is referred to as the “Rabbit Eye”—when it’s not in use, the digicam faces up or down, a de facto privateness shutter—and you’ll make use of it as a selfie or rear digicam. Whereas you should use the Rabbit Eye for video calls, it’s not meant for use like a standard smartphone digicam; extra on this later.

On the appropriate edge is a push-to-talk button you press and maintain to provide the R1 voice instructions, and there’s a 4G LTE SIM card slot for fixed connectivity, that means it doesn’t must pair with another gadget. (You may as well join the R1 to a Wi-Fi community.) It has a USB-C port for charging, and Rabbit claims it’ll final “all day” on a cost.

The R1 prices $199, although you’ll should consider the price of a month-to-month mobile connectivity invoice too, and it’s a must to set that up your self. Preorders begin right now, and it ships in late March.